HITCHCOCKIAN STYLE

Hitchcock style movies are a unique treat to the viewers. This page contains the views of Francois Truffaut, the French director who reviewed Hitchcock’s films on his receiving the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1979. This is a rather cinematic review, rather than a cultural study of Hitchcock fillms.

Truffaut begins by saying Hitchcock remained true to himself as a director and still received such an award, something remarkable. He made his obsessions accepted by the world.

Engaging the audience

Hitchcock never presents his characters as humanists and does not engage in sentimentalism. He works out the fear and insecurities of the audience. His aim is not to teach us or reform us, but to engage us and make us participate in the action taking place on the screen.

Cinema of Fiction

Hitchcock was scornful of the theater style of making films that he described as "photographing talking heads." He wanted his film viewing experience to be akin to reading a novel, where unexpected events keep turning out page after page. The narrative is not objective like a documentary, or a disordered reportage. His films are fiction films and derive their power from that unique style found in novels – the point of view of the protagonist or actor always preceding action. The viewer soaks in the feelings of the actor – like the shower scene in Psycho where the audience feels with Janet Leigh throughout.

Pre-calculated Visualization

Hitchcock’s direction is not just efficient but stylized to add symbolic value to its graphics. It is never a simplistic recording of action, but a re-presentation that adds to the action, pre-calculated to produce a certain effect in the audience.

Master of suspense

Everyone is now familiar with the techniques Hitchcock employed to create suspense. Delaying crucial moments, rushing through dense shocking actions, preparation, expectation, and final delivery, followed by the after effects.